Belated Books: Week 1: Book 2: This year's obsession begins....

So prior to obsessiveness...first things is that the MS Society have upped the security on their donations for the Readathon which means no link for you all directly to my donation page. HUMPH! Hopefully this changes for next year. Having no easy link means that instead of going about this the normal way, I will just read and suggest charities for you to donate to each month for the next three months...despite my misgivings about their complexity donation set-up for the Readathon, I still say this month is for the raising of fund for the MS Society. To donate to them, follow this link http://www.msaustralia.org.au/donate.asp

And donation info provided I move onto the author who will be this year's Franzen (i.e. the author I will blog about at insane length and gush about the awesomeness of), John Green, and the book he co-wrote with David Levithan, Will Grayson, Will Grayson.

Will Grayson, Will Grayson is the story of two teenaged boys both called Will Grayson (you never would have guessed that, right?). Will Grayson (always written in title case) lives in the central suburbs of Chicago. His motto is "shut up" in the sense that he doesn't talk or engage with the issues as that has caused him trouble in the past. He is largely a loner except for his best friend, "Tiny" Cooper, who to paraphrase the novel (as I'm not certain this is the exact wording and I don't have the novel with me) "is the largest person who is also gay or the gayest person who is also large". will grayson (always written in lower case) is a profoundly depressed gay teen living a ways from central Chicago. He is medicated for his depression and lives in his own very dark world. He has a few friends at school (in particular a girl called Maura who has a crush on him but also suspects that he is gay- a fact he is yet to tell anyone) and an intense internet relationship with a boy called Isaac. One night, Will tries to go with Tiny and their mutual friend Jane to a concert only to find his fake ID has been botched and says he is 20 not 21. As he is ejected and they attend the gig, Will looks for a way to entertain himself until the concert is over and decides to indulge in one of the few things in the States that you do with a fake ID that says you are 20 i.e. go to an adult shop (the age for these being 18). On the same night, will has made plans to finally meet the mysterious Isaac but is shocked to discover that Isaac has suggested that they meet in an adult shop which of course turns out to be the same central Chicago shop that Will is checking out. The lives of the two boys intersect and every changes....

I was introduced to the brilliance of John Green about six months ago by a friend who was mildly obsessed with the vlogs that he and his brother Hank upload to youtube (in defense of said friend, I will add that he was obsessed due to unemployment but in a crazy creepy "I must get home to watch me some vlogbrothers in lieu of having a functioning social life" kinda way...I hasten to add not that there is anything wrong with the latter...please don't hunt me down with pitchforks, you nerdfighter types...I even ordered me a Crash Course World History t-shirt so I'm like this close to being one of you). The vlogbrothers videos are mildly entertaining fun and even better is John Green's Crash Course World History which I will admit I am legitimately obsessed with (much better than his brother's science ones). As we watched vlogbrothers videos, the discussion of "I wonder what John Green's novels are like?" came up on occasion, and this is my first attempt to answer this query (the second Looking for Alaska will be blogged about soon- I just finished it yesterday but this is week 3 and I'm still catching up on week 1). I've not read a great number of novels that are written by multiple authors and I often get distracted as I read them by trying to figure out who wrote what section and get all crazy about figuring that out (listen well Pratchett and Gaiman...Good Omens is one of my favourite books and I will one day fight to discover which of you wrote what). Luckily having watched the amount of John Green video I have figuring who wrote what in this case felt profoundly easy as the narrative voice in the odd numbered Will Grayson chapter was so obviously him and the voice in the even numbered will grayson chapters was so obviously not...I checked on wikipedia after I finished and yep I was right.

That out of the way, what was the book like? It is frustrating and confusing! Not because it is bad, but because WHY WHY WHY are teenagers, who the book is aimed at (yes it is YA fiction and I don't mind admitting that I'm an adult who on occasion reads some YA fiction), reading tripe like Twilight or The Hunger Games when they could be reading this!?!?! About a year ago I started to think that YA fiction might always have been as bad as the Meyer and Collins factories make it look (it should be noted I don't consider Harry Potter YA fiction as it was aimed initially at a slightly younger than YA market) and that all I remember about good YA fiction from my childhood/teenage years was a nostalgia cloaked lie so I reread Tomorrow When the War Began and Looking for Alibrandi and it turns out good YA fiction definitely used to be a thing. This novel proved to me that in fact it is still a thing but that the teens are for some reason making the trash more popular than the gold. Will Grayson, Will Grayson, especially the chapters by John Green, is, hyperbole aside, some of the funniest YA fiction I've read in years and I often found myself laughing out loud. In its tackling of big issues such as self confidence, acceptance and homosexuality, it reminded me of my favourite funny YA author when I was a YA, Morris Gleitzman (if you haven't read his Two Weeks with the Queen, even if you are an adult, you should seriously check it out). Both of Will and will are perfect models of awkward teen boys struggling with their identity and the character of Tiny Cooper and his quest to produce his life story as a musical entitled Tiny Dancer is simply visionary...I adored Tiny and he may go down as one of my favourite ever fictional characters. Whilst the book is about teen boys, it is easily readable and accessible to teen girls (at a guess) and adults. I would say to anyone out there with teenagers that they should pick up this touching, hilarious gem of a novel, and give it to their teens but also maybe read it themselves and restore their faith in YA fiction.

Belated Books: Week 1 Book 1: Of slightly dodgy blokes in pre war Berlin

Once again proving my lack of reliability...I promised last week but still I lie.

It is that time of year once more, when I blog and I blog about books for three months as I raise money for the MS Society- last year as part of MS Novel Challenge, this year as part of the now open to adults MS Readathon. I'll post the link of donating when I have it...the MS Readathon website this year is nowhere near as clear or as tidy as the Novel Challenge one last year and I'm struggling to figure out how one goes about donating .

So first book off the ranks...Mr Norris Changes Trains by Christopher Isherwood.

It is Germany in the early 1930s...on the train traveling to Berlin, late 20s Englishman William Bradshaw meets the fellow Englishman Arthur Norris. Norris is in his 50s and is a highly nervous and slightly suspicious individual but nevertheless he and Bradshaw form a friendship. Meeting again in Berlin, where Bradshaw is working as an English teacher and Norris is doing something vague that may involve importing, despite the warning of his friends Bradshaw is drawn into Norris's world and is fascinated by the characters that occupy it. There is Schmidt, Norris's sinister secretary who Norris is slightly afraid of; the Baron Pregnitz ("Kuno") who is a prominent member of the rising Nazi party and who has a thing for young fit men (including Bradshaw); Anna and Otto, Mr Norris's favourite prostitute/dominatrix and her partner/pimp; and various members of the Communist Party in Berlin. Bradshaw's commitment to Norris is proven again and again even after he is repeatedly given reason not to trust Norris, and ultimately Norris constructs a scheme that requires Bradshaw to assist with the connecting of Kuno to French business man in order to help with some deal Norris has going.

This novel was half of a combo book of two Isherwood novels written about Berlin in the 1930s (the other being Goodbye to Berlin- I read it in week 1 too and the review is coming). I was not surprised to discover that William and Bradshaw are in fact Isherwood's middle names, and that the characters are mildly based on real people as the novel does have that feel about it. However what with the frequent references to people's sexual preferences, to prostitution and to sadomasochism, and the barely veiled references to homosexuality, I did have to a bit of a shock as I kept reminding myself that the novel was first published in 1935 and that (as far I'm aware) it was never banned as books with this kind of subject matter published in that era often were. The novel is an interesting picture of pre-WWII Berlin and though I preferred Goodbye to Berlin, this is a lot of good here. It is very witty and the characters (even the minor ones) are well drawn- one of them, Bradshaw's landlady, reappears in Goodbye to Berlin. Personally I found the character of Kuno the most endearing (despite his being a Nazi) and pathetic (literally pathetic I mean) with his weird affectations , his love of boy's own style children's fiction, his hopeless lust for various characters and in the awareness that in Nazi Germany he probably wouldn't last long. I also found the presentation of Communist party quite interesting as they struggle for recognition and are then increasingly repressed as the Nazi party sweeps to power.

Very much worth the read in the end...

Next book for blogging, book 2 of week 1 Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan...post to come soon...

Of films and the like...

OK so first time on the computer at home for over a week, my larger computer having given up the ghost and my small one not being ideal for typing in cold weather...I feel very much the luddite...then again I do use computers all day everyday at work and my non-computer having state has simply "forced" me to use my PS3 more so maybe not. Oh well, time to stop grumbling and re-enter internet land on my small computer...cold fingers on small keyboard NOT FUN!

I am reminded that I promised a blog on last month's film festival and don't say I don't deliver on my promises...though don't look back at past posts either because then it becomes abundantly obvious that I regularly don't. This year marks my sixth year of Sydney Film Festival attendance and sad to say it was a bit of a let down...no gripes to the organisers as I'm sure the fault is partially mine as I got in late and missed out on some films I was super keen to see like the new Wes Anderson and instead wound up with some films I wasn't super keen on. In the end I saw eight films from six countries and it is just sad that from my point of view two of the eight were not brilliant, and another one was variable. So from the top in the order I saw them Clare's run down of her film selections from Sydney Film Festival 2012:

Tatsumi

Love me some anime but this film is not for those who think cartoons/ animation is just for kids. The film is the autobiography of Yoshihiro Tatsumi one of the pioneers of manga for adults and it is interwoven with animated versions of some of his works. Tatsumi's works are quite confronting even the ones earlier in the film that contain less sex and sexual imagery as the latter ones, as are some of the moments of his life. I almost cried at one point in the film and there are definitely moments that tug at the heart strings. Whilst this film wasn't the greatest film, it was told with an honesty and an admiration that is admirable and it is definitely worth seeing for anyone interested in manga and anime.

Play It Like Godard (or JC Comme Jesus Christ to give it, its French title)

It's a long while since I've seen a truly good mockumentary and I thoroughly enjoyed being reminded of how funny a good mockumentary can be with this little French film. It follows a fictional French film directing protege who at the age of 15 won the Palme Dor and is now making a new film. It charts his strained relationship with his parents, his dreadful treatment of his similar brilliant teenaged girlfriend (though academically not artistically brilliant in her case), his affairs with several much older women, and his being hero worshiped by every actor on the block. Ultimately it is an hilarious story of the manipulation of youth by fame albeit tinged with slight sadness and longing for a time when children could be children.

Last Call at the Oasis

There is one every year and was the 2012 film to make me cry. This documentary about water usage, shortage and contamination around the world (though mainly in the US) is not going to set the world alight with its brilliance as a documentary but it is talking about a timely and important issue and this makes it worth the viewing. I challenge any Australian who knows anyone from rural communities who has struggled through the recent years of drought not to cry in the brief section where the documentary team visits rural Victoria and talks to farmers and a community support worker...it brings grown, very tough looking men to tears on the screen and you can tell that this is not through any kind of manipulation.

Liberal Arts

This film simultaneously marked both my highlight of the festival and little did I know at the time, the preemptive brilliance to be followed by mid-festival slump. Written, directed and starring Josh Radnor (Ted from How I Met Your Mother) this is one of those films like Garden State or Reality Bites about the generation of people, often men, in their mid 20s to mid 30s who forsake growing up for a state eternal youth often coupled with a longing to return to their college years. It tells the story of an mid thirties college admissions officer in New York with little in his life of note- he hates his job and he was just dumped by his girlfriend- who returns to the liberal arts college he attended to give a speech at the retirement party for his "second" favourite college lecturer. Radnor's character is a little like Ted in HIMYM but that doesn't bother me as I find Ted mildly endearing and also as Radnor has landed himself an outstanding supporting cast, Elizabeth Olsen (the Olsen to watch...forget her big sisters) is brilliant with the 18 year old the main character has an ill thought out semi relationship with as is Richard Jenkins as his retired professor BUT the true highlights of the films are Alison Janney as his icy English professor (the scene between Radnor and Janney is one of my highlights of the film and it just made my West Wing obsessed brain love her more) and in completely shocking turn of events, Zac Efron as a random young guy who the main character encounters on campus (the boy can actual act...Who knew?!?! And he is hi...wait for it...larious! (sorry Barney reference had to be made)). I just say watch it as if I go on much longer I'll start quoting it and ruin it for you...it was a film that inspired me to want to listen to classical music and write proper letters...and in the best possible way.

The King of Pigs

One of the true low lights of my festival, this, at times quite brutal, Korean anime about school bullying and class differences seemed to last an eternity. It follows two men in their 30s (? maybe late 20s) who meet to discuss when they were both bullied in high school, and their high school years unfold in flashback sequences which are actually the focus of the film. The brutality of the film didn't bother me (though as a lot of the bullying takes place in a class room, the absence of teachers wigged me out a little) but for a film with quite a lot going on it dragged and dragged and dragged...my friend and I left after the film shocked to find that it was only about a hour and a half long as it had felt like over three hours. There was good material at the base of this film (school bullying, class differences, the impact of high school on attitudes later in life, etc.) but its pacing left a lot to be desired.

Dead Europe

My Australian film for the festival. I found this film quite variable as it had some very strong points and other points that didn't quite gel with me. Based on the Christos Tsiolkas novel of the same name, Dead Europe follows an Australian photographer's journey to the small Greek village his parents immigrated from in order to scatter his father's ashes and then his subsequent journeys to Paris (to visit an old friend of his father's) and Budapest (to visit his elder brother). I'll say up front that I haven't read the novel, though avid readers of this blog, if there are any, will recall I read Tsiolkas's The Slap last year and found it quite brilliant if confronting. Dead Europe had some very strong points- the performance of Ewen Leslie as the main character and Cody Smit-McPhee as the young boy he meets in Athens were outstanding, and the cinematography was quite brilliant- but the pacing was slow and there was a feeling that something had been lost in the translation to screen (the director was at the screening and explained during a Q&A that the novel was set in two time periods but they only used one in the film and this explained my feeling that something was missing). At a push I'd say see it to support our film industry (especially as it is better than a lot of the Hollywood crap that is sure to rake home the big bucks this year) and also to see what are some very fine performances even if other components are missing.

The Loneliest Planet

Last year when my film festival highlights was Even the Rain, a Mexican film starring Gael Garcia Bernal and true be told that man is so attractive that I'd pretty much watch anything if he was in. Sadly this film is about the limit of that equation. Set in the Georgian wildness, it is story of two American backpackers (yes from the United States though Bernal's accent is very much still Latin American) and their guide as they hike through the wilderness. That is pretty much it...nothing much happens and you find out very little about the characters and the characters barely talk...all that can be said is that the scenery is pretty as is Bernal but you can only content yourself with that for so long. This film is quite amazingly boring and there is next to no plot except the hiking.

Wuthering Heights

Thankfully for all involved, my festival didn't end with The Loneliest Planet but with the brilliant new adaptation of Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights (having seen and loved Jane Eyre at last year's festival, Sydney Film Festivals are definitely adding to my love of the Bronte sisters). This adaptation is so innovative (I hate using that term though) that it will leave some cold as it did several people at the screening I attended. I won't bother with a plot summary of Wuthering Heights as I assume you know it and if you don't, FOR SHAME...go and read the book!  This production is insanely stripped back, the language is sparse (much of it is cuss words...I never thought I'd hear the c word in period drama but I've been proven wrong) and the performances are outstanding (Effie from Skins plays the older Cathy the fact of which entertained me...though her performance was brilliant). The swearing and the lack of dialogue are not everyone's cup of tea and I heard one woman remark as she left the screening "I'm sure Emily Bronte wouldn't have approved of the language"...but I disagree! The stronger language is employed mainly by one character, Hindley Earnshaw, (though Heathcliff does also swear a little) and it is completely in line with Bronte's portrayal of the Earnshaws are a lower class farming family and Hindley as just a generally unpleasant individual. The other major difference from previous version of the novel is that the actor who plays Heathcliff is black which adds an addition interesting level of complexity to the film. My only downside was that the film is that like most adaptations of the novel stops before the latter section of the novel...not going to give anything away by saying what happens about two thirds through the book, but needless to stay most adaptations stop there and I quite like the latter section (I know many don't) so I often feel a little cheated there. That said this adaptation is totally worth seeing even for the unconverted to the novel's brilliance...as an added bonus there is brilliant (newish) Mumford and Sons song over the closing credits.

So there is my Film Festival for you...next post the beginning of books, many books...to come tomorrow, it was to also be tonight but my hands are too cold from typing on small keyboard and it is near midnight on a weeknight...